Untitled
by endless-fever
Summary: 'He should have seen it on Dana's face.'


**Title:** Untitled   
**Author:** Jadecow   
**E-mail:** jadecow@hotmail.com   
**Summary:** '_He should have seen it on Dana's face._'   
**Rating:** PG-13, mild non-graphic violence/language   
**Thanks to:** Kali for doing a great job betaing this bad boy.   
**Auhtor's note:** This is my first time writing in the _Sports Night_ fandom, so all comments are not only welcome but needed. I hope you enjoy. 

~*~   
Untitled   
By Jadecow   
~*~   
He should have seen it on Dana's face. Never mind the fact that she was waiting in their office for them to come back from lunch. A fantastic lunch, on a fantastic day. The only thing not fantastic until Dana opened her mouth was the fact that Dan was not sharing in his joy. At least, not sharing in it enough to keep him from moving from happy with work, life, and everything else, even the food at lunch, to generally ecstatic about work, life, and everything else, including those fine cold cuts at lunch. 

Assuming that it was something bad about the show, he spoke before she even got off the edge of the desk where she was perched. "I don't want to hear it, right now, Dana. Save--" 

"Casey." 

Her tone of voice made the words die in his mouth. This wasn't typical bad news about a segment getting cut because of some stupid corporate politics. 

"Sit down." 

'_Someone should tell her that's not the best way to lead in to bad news._' The thought was lost almost as quickly as it came. Dana wasn't budging until he sat, he saw that in her eyes. He sat at the table, keeping his eyes on Dana the whole time, hardly aware of Dan at all. 

Now, Dana didn't say anything, she looked like she would rather hack off her arm then say whatever was so horrible he had to sit down to hear it. 

"Dana, you're making me nervous." 

When he noticed the tears in her eyes he knew it was really bad. 

"What?" 

"Casey, you know that Lisa is dating someone, Vincent?" 

"Yeah, Charlie told me about him." He couldn't keep all the resentment out of his voice. 

"Well, they were in a car earlier…" 

Casey closed his eyes for a second, not liking where this was going. 

"You're listed as a contact for Char--" 

He was standing up before he realized he wanted to be standing. "Charlie was in the car too?" 

Dana nodded. "Him, Lisa, and Vincent. The hospital called twenty minutes ago. Lisa's in surgery. Charlie's stable. That's all they told me." 

He was on his way to the door when Dana called after him. He pretended he didn't hear her, was pretty sure he didn't want to hear any more news. He was waiting for the elevator (or punching the call button franticly) when Dan caught up with him. Walking down all those flights of stairs didn't seem like the best idea in the world when he was barely holding himself up right. 

"You didn't ask what hospital, Casey." Dan said quietly, out of breath from sprinting down the hall. 

Casey opened his mouth, closed it and couldn't think of anything to say. 

"I'm going with you." 

"There's a show in--" 

"I'm coming." 

"Thanks." The word was harder to say then he thought it would be. He looked at Danny for the first time and forced as much a smile as he could manage. His face felt numb.   
~*~   
They took a cab, it seemed like a better idea then either one of them driving. Dan watched Casey, trying to hide his own worry for the sake of his friend. No need for two of them freaking out. Dana had told him what hospital and not to worry about the show. Sports Night wasn't their main concern right now. 

The cab ride seemed like it was unnecessarily long. He thought maybe the cabbie was doing it on purpose, but found it hard to believe after looking over at Casey. All Dan knew was that if Casey kept on breathing the way he was, he was either going to pass out or have a heart attack. 

Then they were there, and he suddenly wished the ride was longer. Casey was out and attempting to set new land speed records while Dan paid, not waiting for change. Once again, he found himself sprinting after Casey. 

He heard Casey's voice before he saw him. A man Dan didn't recognize was talking to Casey, both of them standing in what appeared to be the emergency room waiting room. The guy was in a suit that would have been considered nice if it wasn't for the fair amount of blood on it. Most of it apparently came from a bandaged wound to the head. Ten feet away, he saw that Casey's hands were clutched into fists and that he was shaking. 

"…you were driving?" Casey demanded, not really seeming to be to fond of Vincent already. Dan didn't blame him. 

"I was. I thought I was going to make it." 

"You ran a light with my son in the car?" 

"I didn't do it intentionally." 

Dan stepped up before Casey slugged the guy. "How are they? They really didn't give all that much info on the phone." 

Vincent almost looked grateful for Dan's presence. Casey didn't say a word, just stared at Vincent. 

"Charlie broke two ribs, his collarbone, and has a concussion, they're putting him in a room right now for observation over night. They said he was lucky, no internal bleeding." 

Some of the tension left Casey's shoulders. "What about Lisa?" 

Vincent looked down. "It doesn't look all that good. A lot of damage. She's up in surgery." 

Dan was almost relieved when a doctor approached them. The doctor looked at Casey, who seemed to find it hard to peal his glare off of Vincent. "Are you Casey McCall?" 

Casey nodded, the look on his face clearly saying he wasn't sure if he wanted to be or not. 

"Charles--" 

"Charlie." Casey corrected quietly. 

The doctor forced a smile. "Charlie was moved up to a room in the peeds unit, fourth floor, room four sixteen." 

"Can I see him?" 

"For a few minutes, yes. Visitor's hours are almost over." 

"What about Lisa?" 

"She's out of surgery, but she's still in critical condition in the ICU. Visitors aren't allowed if they're not immediate family." 

Casey nodded, Vincent broke his silence. "Does engagement count?" 

Dan didn't fail to notice the slight start Casey gave at that, but his mind was elsewhere. Neither of them stuck around to listen to the doctor's answer. Casey wasn't sticking around, and Dan could really care less if Vincent could weasel his way into Lisa's room.   
~*~   
He was trying to convince himself that if he concentrated on breathing slowly, he would be able to do this. Charlie was awake. Lying in the bed and looking so incredibly small. Casey had nightmares about this type of thing, which wasn't helping. He forced himself to remember that Charlie would be okay. 

"Hey, kiddo." 

Charlie looked at him and gave a half smile. "Hey Dad." 

He sat in the chair by the bed. Not for the first time since the divorce, he wasn't sure what he should say to his son. 

"Are you okay?" 

Casey blinked. "I should be asking you that question." 

"You look worse then I do." 

Casey smiled, almost laughed, but couldn't find the energy. "I was scared." He swallowed. "I was terrified." 

Casey knew Charlie wanted to say something. He had a feeling he knew what Charlie wanted to say, he was just unsure on how to answer it. Finally, Charlie just asked. "Where's Mom?" 

"She's in a different room." 

"She looked bad. Is she gonna be okay?" 

He couldn't lie. "I'm not sure." 

"It's bad, isn't it? The doctors wouldn't tell me anything." 

"They didn't want to scare you after everything that happened." 

"But I am scared." 

Casey nodded. "I am too. It's okay to be a little scared, but you worry about getting better too." 

"Is she gonna die?" 

Casey looked down at the tiled floor, surprised at the tears that were trying to push their way out of his eyes. He looked back into Charlie's eyes. "I don't know." 

There was silence, heavy. Charlie didn't look like he was in any pain, but it was hard looking at all those cuts on his face. Staring at the floor didn't really help. He was convinced Charlie had fallen asleep when he finally did look up. Charlie wasn't, he was staring back at him. 

"Daddy, if I tell you something will you get mad at me?" 

Casey smiled. "I think right now you've got a good get out of jail free card." 

Charlie managed another half smile, but it faded quickly. "Dad, I was at home with Vincent before we went to pick up mom at work. I watched him. He drank. And I let him drive anyway." 

"He was drunk?" 

"Yeah." 

"And then got in the car?" 

"Yeah, and I didn't stop him." 

His anger faded when he saw the tears in Charlie's eyes. Then Charlie looked away. Casey got to his feet, stood even closer to Charlie. "Charlie look at me." Charlie did, he was crying now. "This was not your fault at all." 

"I could have stopped him." 

Casey swallowed, his mouth feeling incredibly dry, wondering if Charlie had been agonizing the entire time. "Charlie, it's not your fault what some moron chose to do. You're lucky you're okay." 

"But they show all these movies in school about not getting in cars with drunk people." 

"That's movies, Charlie. It is all entirely Vincent's fault…You should sleep." 

"Are you mad at me?" 

"No. Hell, no! I'm mad at you at all, kiddo." 

"I let Mom get hurt." 

Casey closed his eyes, then opened them again. "Charlie, it wasn't your fault at all. You know how I feel about lying. I wouldn't lie to you. If I thought it was your fault, I'd tell you." 

Charlie looked half convinced. "Can you stay 'till I fall asleep?" 

Casey just nodded, sitting by his son's bedside and planning the death of his ex-wife's fiancé.   
~*~   
The nurse that came in to tell him visitor's hours were over almost woke Charlie. He quietly tried to convince her to let him stay, but she seemed to have taken training classes from Nurse Ratched and wouldn't let him. She even threatened to not allow him to be let in the next day if he didn't leave. He gave up, feeling too exhausted to continue the fight. By the time he had reached the waiting room, anger had taken over and he was no longer tired. 

Both men had stood when he came in, but he really didn't see Danny at all. All his attention was locked on the bastard in front of him. His body took over before he realized what he was doing. He registered is own pain, but it was remote, like it wasn't his hand that was aching from the punch he delivered to the man that was supposed to marry his ex-wife. 

It was satisfying to see Vincent on the ground, even more the sound he made when he kicked him. There were more voices in the background, Dan asking him what the hell he was doing, but all he could think of was Charlie trying not to cry. It was beyond seeing red, it was pure animal instinct to kill. Vincent got to his feet, hands up in front of him, defensive, feigning surprise. Casey wound up to hit him again, now perfectly aware that he was planing on beating the guy's face in. 

Danny chose the wrong moment to try at stop him --coming up behind him, just as he swung back. His elbow hit Dan in the face. It slowed him down quick enough to allow Vincent to get almost out of the way, but he still swung, hitting Vincent in the side of his head at full force. 

Vincent was down again. He probably would have done a lot more if Dan hadn't wrapped both his arms around him and almost lifted him off his feet, trying to get him away from Vincent. In the end the two of them were on the ground, Dan pinned beneath him, still trying to hold him back, and Vincent a short distance away from them looking dazed. It snapped him out of the haze. 

He forced himself to untangle from Dan, surprised to see the amount of nurses surrounding them. Not to mention the few other parents who were in their own versions of hell. He was back to the shaking, his eyes trained on Vincent, who was sitting up and holding his head. 

"Casey?" Dan asked, behind him. 

He tore his eyes off of Vincent and looked at Dan. His lip was bleeding. It was enough to send his already churning stomach over the edge. A lot of eyes were on him; they hadn't seen Charlie's face. They didn't know. He was actually running for an exit from the building before he realized what he was doing. 

He ran to the stairs because waiting for the elevator meant letting Dan catch up. He had made his best friend bleed. He could hear Danny above him pounding down the stairs. He nearly fell more then once, trying to look up and run at the same time. Finally, the ground level, out the building only a few feet before he lost his 'fantastic' lunch. 

That didn't help calm his anger, at himself, at Vincent. Hitting the wall seemed like a good idea the first two or three times. After that it wasn't to vent his anger, it was to feel something.   
~*~   
Working on Sports Night, he got to see a hell of a lot of mental breakdowns. They usually involved Dana and usually didn't include one of his friends trying to kill someone. He knew Casey was angry with Vincent, he had been driving the car, he had run a light, but he didn't know what had set Casey off after sitting with Charlie for almost an hour. 

He rounded a corner and almost cursed. He tried to remember when he had seen Casey this mad at anything. 

"The building didn't do anything." He tried, seeing blood on the wall, feeling very uneasy about his friend's health. 

Casey jerked around and looked at him, almost trying to hide the fact that he was taking out his anger on the wall. "I'm sorry, Danny." 

"About freaking out?" 

Casey shook his head. "I hit you." 

Dan touched his lip, seeing the blood on his hand as he pulled it away. "I've been hit harder." 

"I didn't mean to." 

Dan nodded. "I know. Any reason you suddenly decided to try and beat the living shit out of Lisa's fiancé?" He paused, then nodded towards the red spot on the wall Casey was probably hoping he didn't see. "And the wall?" 

Casey nodded. "Yeah. He was drunk." 

Dan didn't say anything, just leaned against the wall. Casey was flexing and unflexing his hand, looking like it wasn't even bothering him one bit. Dan didn't like that. 

"Charlie knew, and got in the car anyway. He thinks what happened is his fault now." 

"Oh God." 

Casey nodded. 

"You should have said something before you attacked. I would have helped you." 

Casey almost smiled, then shook his head. "I don't think Charlie needs his father in jail right now." 

Dan had honestly thought that was going to be the result. There was silence. The constant flex and unflexing was driving him nuts. "Doesn't your hand hurt?" He finally blurted. 

Casey looked down at it. "No." 

"It looks like it should." 

Casey nodded. "It definitely should. But it doesn't." 

Dan almost smiled at the familiar way of talking to each other. "That pissed?" 

"That pissed." 

"That's not good." 

"No probably not." 

"You should go inside and get that checked out." 

Casey looked like he wanted to fight that idea, but wisely just shrugged. It was an issue Dan wasn't about to back down on. 

"Not in there." Casey finally said, still making a fist with his injured hand. 

"If you see Vincent-" 

"I'll kill him." 

Dan didn't doubt that.   
~*~   
"What the hell is Casey doing in the emergency room!?" Dana nearly shouted into her phone, feeling almost bad about yelling at Dan. Jeremy, whose phone she commandeered when she was told Dan was on the line for her, stared back at her a little surprised. 

There was a pause, then Dan spoke. "He punched Vincent." 

"And hurt himself doing it?" 

"He punched the guy in the head twice. Right now they are taking x-rays of his hand." 

Dana sighed as she pushed that annoying lock of hair behind her ear. "Why did he punch Vincent?" 

"The accident was his fault." Dan hesitated, even over the phone, Dana knew he had something to add that she didn't necessarily want to hear. "Look, he says he wants to do the show tonight." 

"That's not a good idea." 

"I know that. But he keeps insisting he wants to." 

"Tell him Bobbi's already on her way in." 

"Dana, let him do it." 

"Why?" 

"Because I think he needs to take his mind off of all this for a hour." 

She had seen Casey do shows unfocused. There was a time when loyalties took over for smart business decisions. "It's not a good idea, Dan." Her mind was already made up, she just needed to make sure Dan thought it was the right decision -he'd push her if he really believed what he was saying. 

"I know, but he still should do the show." 

Despite the situation, she smiled. "It's two hours to air." 

"We'll be done in time. The doctor likes the show." 

Dana managed a small smile. She said her goodbyes wondering if she was making the wrong decision.   
~*~   
"You sure that this is a good idea?" Natalie asked. For the eightieth time since Casey and Dan returned. 

Dana bit back her first response, trying not to show she was staring into Dan and Casey's office. Casey was laying on his back on the couch. Dan was typing like a man possessed, trying to get the script into something decent. 

"He's an adult Natalie. It may be up for debate sometimes, but he makes his own decisions. He wants to do the show, he does the show. His call, not mine." 

"You have the final say." 

She sighed. "It's been a very long day." 

There was a lull in the conversation, Dana tried to do her job, but found herself unable to concentrate. 

Natalie broke the silence again. "You wanted to go to the hospital with them." 

Dana looked up then nodded. 

"You could have handed it off to me." 

"Yeah, with two missing anchors? And hardly anything written?" 

"You have known Charlie for a long time." 

"There wasn't a choice to be made, Natalie." 

"You could have called-" 

"It's done already, Natalie. I'll stop by tomorrow. Right now, we've got an hour to air, and we don't have a set script." 

"They have to give makeup a little more time tonight." 

Dana stared at her blankly. 

"Danny's lip is all swollen. And Casey--" 

"Looks like crap." 

"I was gonna say tried, but yeah that works too." 

Dana sighed again. "This is a bad idea, isn't it?" 

"Probably." 

But a decision she couldn't regret.   
~*~   
This is what he needed to do. Some sense of normalcy. That way he could convince himself his world wasn't ending on him. At least he could while they were on air. Other wise there were a thousand 'how are yous' being asked. They had a five-minute break when Dana came into the studio. Casey had felt her eyes on him since they returned. This was no exception. Danny could have not existed for all the attention she was giving him. 

"Casey, we can see you sweating on camera. You okay?" 

"Yeah, but I think whatever they gave me at the hospital wore off." 

"They didn't give you anything to take later?" 

"I didn't have time to get the prescription filled." 

Dana turned and shouted for some aspirin --extra strength. She turned back to look at him, she was mad. Dan was mad too; he could feel his partner's gaze burrowing into the side of his head. Dan didn't know they had given him the prescription. Neither of them said it. He decided to voice it for him. 

"In retrospect, taking the time to do that probably would have been a good idea." 

"Probably? You're gonna faint on camera!" Natalie added, handing him the aspirin and water. 

"I'm not gonna faint." 

"Promise?" 

He did his best to smile; it felt like one of the plastic smiles he was giving for the show. He doubted it reassured anyone. "Promise. And as soon as we're done I'll go get it filled. Happy?" 

Dana and Natalie disappeared into the control room, apparently remembering that they had to actually produce Sports Night, without a comment. 

Danny didn't waste any time in questioning him. "Are you fine?" 

Casey looked at him, a little surprised by the word choice. 

"You seem to only respond with fine. I was wondering if you moved away from being fine." 

"I'm not fine." 

"What are you then?" 

"Three seconds away from screaming." 

Casey downed the rest of the water on the desk, if only for the benefit of having something to do. Realizing his stupidity on live television probably wasn't the way to go. It had worked though. He wasn't sitting in an uncomfortable chair waiting for visiting hours to see Charlie or more word about Lisa's condition. Even worse was that he would probably spend the time trying to get the other parents to switch to CSC and planning Vincent's demise. 

"Really?" Dan asked, staring at him. 

"Everyone keeps asking how I am. It's getting annoying." 

"Could that be because we care about you?" 

"Yeah, but nothing's going to change in the five minute intervals. Charlie's in the hospital, Lisa's going to die, and a stupid bastard who I can't kill, even though I'd really like to, is responsible." 

Dan smiled the smile of the unfunny jokes to come, and slid closer to him, dropping his voice a fraction. "So you're not all right?" 

Casey felt himself almost smiling. "Rest assured, I can still strangle you one handed." 

Dana's voice came over his ear peace. "Casey, you're back in fifty, I don't think it's good idea to be nationally broadcasting death threats to your co-anchor." 

"Point taken." 

Then, it got worse. Fifteen minutes to go Dan tossed it to a field reporter doing a post-game report at Yankee Stadium. Dana started walking into the studio again, this time he couldn't read her face. Natalie told them they were back in two minutes. Something was wrong with her too, he could hear it, no more of that happy cheer in her voice. He was convinced that Lisa had died, that's why Dana looked so grim, but then he saw the two uniformed officers behind her. 

Dan spoke first. "What's going on?" 

One of the cops spoke, looking directly at him. "Vincent Seaton is pressing assault charges against you."   
~*~   
The mood was definitely more sedated then it had been yesterday. Bad things happening to one of your coworkers sedated the atmosphere. Seeing one of your coworkers being taken out of the office in handcuffs seemed to kill the atmosphere. Dan reflected on this while staring at a blank screen. He knew he should be writing, but he kept looking at the clock. 

Casey had called him at home around seven in the morning, telling him that there was going to be a bail hearing at three and he'd more likely than not be able to post it. It was only eleven o'clock now --four more hours of waiting. Dan had a friend who was a police officer, he had called him earlier. His friend assured him that if they had checked Victor's blood for alcohol, he would have been arrested on the spot. So they hadn't. It was going to be Casey's word against Victor's and it didn't look good for Casey. 

"Are you busy?" Jeremy's voice shook him out of his thoughts. 

"No, what's up?" 

"The guy that's pressing charges is Vincent Seaton, right?" 

"That's the one Casey tried to kill, yeah." 

"Did you know he's running for re-election to the state legislature?" 

"We really didn't chat about what we did for a living." 

"Oh. If it goes to trial it's going to be very public. Bad for his chances at winning an election. Especially if Casey insists the reason why he hit him was because Vincent had been drunk." 

Dan smiled, he was already up and grabbing his jacket. "Jeremy, I love you right now." 

Jeremy smiled back. "I thought you would like to hear that."   
~*~   
Convincing Dana and Isaac this was worthy of leaving the office for was easier then Dan thought it would be. Finding him and been predictably easy too. He had been in the ICU waiting room, sitting alone. His suit was clean, but the bandage was still there. 

"We met yesterday." Dan said, sitting down next to Vincent. 

"Yes, you stopped him from killing me." 

"Only because I didn't know why he was trying to kill you." 

"How do you mean?" 

"You were drunk when you ran that light." 

A small start, nothing substantial. "I was not." 

"Charlie told Casey he saw you drinking. He felt that it was his fault that his mother was hurt because he didn't stop you." 

"That's a lie. The kid was doped up pretty well by the time Casey got in to see him." 

Dan shrugged. "They didn't draw your blood and test it for alcohol, did they?" 

"No, they didn't. I didn't need a transfusion." 

"So Casey has no case against you." 

"No, he doesn't." 

"But he does have the word of a kid who's been hurt and who almost saw his mother die." 

Vincent squirmed, almost easy to miss, if he wasn't watching him so intently. Danny pressed on, knowing it was going to work. "You've already lost a lot of votes, mine, just about everyone who cares about Casey and didn't appreciate seeing him be brought out of the station in handcuffs in middle of a live broadcast. How many more votes do you think you loose when this assault thing goes to trail and Casey testifies that the reason he hit you was because you put his son in the car after you had been drinking?" 

"It'll be just an allegation from the man who's ex-wife I'm about to marry. He's jealous, saw an excuse and took it." 

"Allegations are damaging to political careers, even if they're never truly proved. Your blood was never tested, so you can't say Casey has hard evidence, but on the other hand you don't have any evidence either." 

That did it. Vincent was broken already. "And how would I stop this from getting out to the public?" 

Dan smiled. "For one, dropping the charges against Casey would be a start." 

"What else?" 

"I'm not sure, to be honest. I know Casey wouldn't be comfortable with the idea of you ever driving anywhere with Charlie or Lisa in the car again. But I can't speak for him. I haven't been able to talk to him because he's in jail." 

There was a pause from Vincent, then: "This won't happen again." 

"Why is that?" 

"Because, contrary to what you or your friend want to believe, I did hurt and almost kill two people I deeply care about." 

"That and you sweat your ass off wondering if there was going to be manslaughter charges." 

Vincent looked away, and Dan knew that was the true reason. "A big enough scare?" 

"Definitely." 

"I'm still not sure that's enough." 

"Well, considering I've got enough witnesses on my side to secure your friend jail time…" 

"It's enough for now." 

"I figured it would be." 

"But, remember, Charlie and Casey may not see each other often, but when they do, they're very honest with each other. Charlie will tell him if he sees you pulling this again. And Casey's got enough friends to help him dispose of a body and plenty that would provide alibis." 

"Point taken…I think I have some calls to make." 

Dan nodded, holding back his smile. "Yeah, you do."   
~*~   
Walking to his office had never taken so long. A lot of 'how are yous' coupled with quite a few 'what the hell are you doing heres.' He answered them all as quickly as possible, wanting to talk to Dan. Casey felt the smile of relief on his face, and didn't care if he was grinning like an idiot. There was an awkward silence, awkward only because there was so many things they both wanted to say. 

Casey finally broke the silence. "I went to see Charlie --they're letting him go home with me tomorrow-- but visiting hours are over. I even tried to bribe the nurse, but she didn't go for it." 

"How's Lisa?" 

"She woke up. They didn't think she would. It's going to be a long time before she's released. Even longer before she'll be one hundred percent." 

"It's better then what the original prognosis was." 

"Yeah." Another silence, this time he broke it. "Hey, I ran into Vincent at the hospital." 

Dan looked up and smiled. "You didn't hit him again, did you?" 

Casey returned the grin. "I wanted to, but I had enough fun with jail cells for the week." 

"Scared straight." 

Casey smiled. "He said he had an interesting conversation with you." 

Dan looked at him but didn't say anything. 

"I didn't take you to be the black mailing type, Dan." 

"Yeah, well, it seemed like the best thing to do." 

Another silence, then: "Danny, thank you." 

"This is what friends are for." 

"Black mail and insinuating that they'd be willing to be murder accomplices?" 

"Yeah. I had that on a key chain once. 'Friends help you move, real friends help you move bodies.'" 

"Very true." 

There was another silence, this one a lot more comfortable. Dan broke it this time with the only question he could think to ask. "You doing the show tonight?" 

"No, Dana already informed me that she's got Bobbie on her way and she doesn't want to send her home for the second night in the row." 

"Ah." 

"That was bad decision last night, wasn't it?" 

"Which one? Hitting a wall or doing the show?" 

"Both. Sorry you did the end alone." 

"No problem, another clause in the friend contract: must cover for your friend when he is arrested. Thirty more seconds and the whole nation would have seen it, though." 

Casey wanted to say something else, more profuse thanks, but he yawned instead. Dan opened his mouth, but Casey beat him to it. "I'm going home." 

"Good. Sleep too." 

He nodded. "I'm not going to be in again tomorrow." 

"Dana's already planed for that. I think the entire week, actually. Don't worry about it and go home before you wind up sleeping on the couch." 

Casey left with yet another thank you. 

At home, he managed to make it to the opening of the show before falling asleep. He could imagine just what the atmosphere was like during the first commercial break. Part of him was sad he wasn't there, like he always was on his day off, but then he thought of all that was to come the next day and in the days after that. He was glad for the chance to rest. 

He fell asleep thinking of the chaos of the show and thinking how glad he was to have all those people there as friends.   
~*~   
The End 

Please send all comments to: jadecow@hotmail.com. Thanks.


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